YMMV / Waxworks (1992)

• Anticlimax Boss:
  • The final fight with the witch is a joke compared with the rest of the game — your uncle even flat-out tells you what to do to kill her.
  • The other bosses are this, too. Jack can barely do any damage, and you need to hit him just three times to impale him and send him plummeting into the Thames. The Priest is no better than the Mooks that run around the pyramid, and all you need to get rid of Vladmir is touch him. The monster of the Mine is probably the only really challenging boss battle.
• Awesome Music: Waxworks features some music that does a great job of unsettling the hell out of you. One of the catchiest themes is actually the game over theme for the Victorian London level.
• Breather Level: Zig-Zagged; the graveyard is the easiest area in the game. Up to you whether you start slow or use it to catch your breath. Puzzle-wise, it's a piece of cake. If you're not comfortable with the combat system, though, it's a goddamn nightmare. Better yet, if you don't know exactly where you're going and wander for too long, the game will start sending one zombie after another at you until you run out of life from simple attrition. So yeah, the easiest area is still very hard. (In fact, unless you find the sickle very soon, just a couple of zombies can kill you.)
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After Jack The Ripper made you look bad just for looking like him, it's extremely satisfying to fatally stab him and cause him to fall backward into the River Thames.
  • Also, utterly mutilating Ixona to the point of cowering before stabbing her to death is extremely satisfying after all the horrors she was responsible for.
• Dancing Bear: This would be just another frustrating Point-and-Click Game from The '90s, had it not been for the gruesome death scenes that continue to leave a lasting impact on gamers, even now.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Using a special plot device in modern day to go back in time and relive the lives of your ancestors? That sounds familiar. Bonus points for one of the waxworks being set in Victorian London, complete with Jack the Ripper, and another one being set in Ancient Egypt.
• Narm:
  • Not even this game is safe from it. The snake death in the pyramid is very freaky, and the game over screen depicts you with several bleeding fang marks and snakes slithering on top of you. However, it loses some of its disturbing nature simply because one of the snakes appears to have a big goofy grin on his face that's frankly kind of adorable.
  • In the death scene in the Ripper Waxwork where the angry mob catches you, your character's battered body appears to have a boner. No wonder they thought you were guilty!
• Nausea Fuel: Many of the game over screens are absolutely disgusting. Try getting killed by the mutant who whips you with its tongue, for example. Or better yet, don't.
• Paranoia Fuel: You're in the Victorian era with the sole purpose of trying to find and kill Jack The Ripper, who is considered a plague upon London. Surely you can expect some support? Forget it — everyone thinks that you are the Ripper. The police officers will have you convicted and executed via hanging, the group of people out to get The Ripper will smash your skull open, and your own twin brother will do to you what he does best. There are a handful of people who won't try to kill you, but they're pretty sparse.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The dreaded real-time combat + point n' click interface combo rears its ugly head here. While it does have a bit more polish compared to many other examples, it will still take many deaths for you to get the hang of mastering it. Even then, there's really no surefire way to prevent damage other than killing your enemy before they can get a hit in.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The huge changes the remake brought to the finale (see Not His Sled) were not apreciated by the fans of the original.

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